Ellen Power: Teaching, then and now: They’ve come a long way

Thursday

Aug 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 30, 2007 at 1:51 AM

Teacher, nurse or secretary-would I choose one of those three again? Absolutely. I think you know which one.

By Ellen Power

Certainly, when I graduated high school in the early 1960s, most girls went into one of three professions - teaching, nursing or secretarial work. Not for us were the dreams of becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer. We marched proudly off to major in education at state colleges, to local hospitals to earn an RN in three years, or directly into the vast work force at the Edison, the gas or telephone company. So much brain power; so little choice.

For those who chose education, the road was a difficult one filled with detours. We meekly accepted the $100 a week salary, the no slacks in the classroom rule. “After all,” we said, “20 years ago a married woman had to resign.”

Thus the generations of children who fondly remembered the spinster Miss Sullivan and the prim Miss O’Hara and the legions of other maidens who dedicated their lives to service in the classrooms of the Commonwealth. Yet, women who married in succeeding decades often lost their teaching positions once it appeared that a fetus nestled comfortably underneath the green plaid blouse with the Peter Pan collar.

To allow children in the classroom to see a teacher, enceinte, horrified administrators. Indeed, they thought it an affront to the young scholars under their care. So a forced hiatus descended on many pregnant teachers; some never went back to the world of blackboards and chalk.

During the 70’s and 80’s, however, many of us did come back. Except for a few older instructors who greeted us with, “How can you leave your children?,” we seamlessly re-entered the profession and found acceptance. We also found change.

In addition to the traditional academic subjects, we now shouldered drug, alcohol, smoking, and sex education. Hygiene lessons, peer mediation sessions, self esteem curricula, multicultural programs, and workshops on bullying inched their way into the school day. Community service projects and student/teacher activism on social and environmental issues also reduced on-task time in the classroom. Teachers felt increasingly pressured as they attempted to cover their syllabi in shorter time periods as school systems tried to address a myriad of social issues.

Then, thunder struck. The first MCAS tests appeared in 1998, and by 2006 every student in grades 3 through 8 and 10 took tests in English Language Arts/Reading and mathematics. High school students needed to meet or exceed the Needs Improvement score of 220 in both math and English in order to graduate beginning with the class of 2003.

Administrators responded by carving out larger and larger blocks of time for English and mathematics. Lesson plans had to adhere to Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. Deviation from these almost certainly brought a mild reprimand. Now a different kind of pressure developed. Educators dared not teach topics unrelated to the frameworks; it might affect the students’ scores! So the pressure changed. Now instead of societal pressure to address every personal and social problem, teachers endured public criticism when lists of “Warning” or “Needs Improvement” MCAS scores of their schools appeared in the local paper.

A veteran teacher recently wore a hat at her retirement party which proclaimed, “What is old is new; what is new is old.” Fads come and go in instruction techniques just as much as fashions do in Mademoiselle or Gentlemen’s Quarterly. Standards based lesson plans will be big one year-differentiated instruction the next. Cooperative learning groups and literature circles float in and out.

So, too, the current emphasis on MCAS will abate. Exceptions will continue to grow regarding the pass requirement. MCAS results will soon be one measure of a student’s achievement-but not the definitive one.

As I near retirement, I realize why I chose teaching. Despite the frustrating leitmotifs in curriculum and instruction, there is no greater joy than to see children grow academically and emotionally during the school year. I know I touched many children’s lives; and, certainly, my life altered because of the profession I chose.

Teacher, nurse or secretary-would I choose one of those three again? Absolutely. I think you know which one.

Ellen Power of Milton is a sixth grade teacher at the Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy.

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